xref: /openbsd/lib/libc/sys/madvise.2 (revision d89ec533)
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31.\"	@(#)madvise.2	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
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33.Dd $Mdocdate: December 26 2019 $
34.Dt MADVISE 2
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm madvise ,
38.Nm posix_madvise
39.Nd give advice about use of memory
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.In sys/mman.h
42.Ft int
43.Fn madvise "void *addr" "size_t len" "int behav"
44.Ft int
45.Fn posix_madvise "void *addr" "size_t len" "int behav"
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47The
48.Fn madvise
49system call
50allows a process that has knowledge of its memory behavior
51to describe it to the system.
52The
53.Fn posix_madvise
54interface has the same effect, but returns the error value
55instead of only setting
56.Va errno .
57.Pp
58The possible behaviors are:
59.Bl -tag -width MADV_SEQUENTIAL
60.It Dv MADV_NORMAL
61No further special treatment needed.
62.It Dv MADV_RANDOM
63Expect random page access patterns.
64.It Dv MADV_SEQUENTIAL
65Expect sequential page references.
66.It Dv MADV_WILLNEED
67The pages will be referenced soon.
68.It Dv MADV_DONTNEED
69The pages will not be referenced soon.
70.It Dv MADV_SPACEAVAIL
71Ensure that resources are reserved.
72.It Dv MADV_FREE
73The pages don't contain any useful data and can be recycled.
74.El
75.Pp
76Portable programs that call the
77.Fn posix_madvise
78interface should use the aliases
79.Dv POSIX_MADV_NORMAL , POSIX_MADV_RANDOM ,
80.Dv POSIX_MADV_SEQUENTIAL , POSIX_MADV_WILLNEED ,
81and
82.Dv POSIX_MADV_DONTNEED
83rather than the flags described above.
84.Sh RETURN VALUES
85.Rv -std madvise
86.Pp
87If successful, the
88.Fn posix_madvise
89function will return zero.
90Otherwise an error number will be returned to indicate the error.
91.Sh SEE ALSO
92.Xr minherit 2 ,
93.Xr mprotect 2 ,
94.Xr msync 2 ,
95.Xr munmap 2
96.Sh STANDARDS
97The
98.Fn posix_madvise
99system call conforms to
100.St -p1003.1-2008 .
101.Sh HISTORY
102The
103.Fn madvise
104function first appeared in SunOS 4.0 and has been available since
105.Ox 2.7 .
106The
107.Fn posix_madvise
108function first appeared in
109.Ox 4.8 .
110.Sh BUGS
111The
112.Dv MADV_WILLNEED
113behavior is ignored.
114The
115.Dv MADV_SPACEAVAIL
116behavior is not implemented and will always fail.
117